Apollo & Other Space Program Artifacts
History of Apollo
USS HORNET CVS-12 was selected in 1969 to serve as the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for the Apollo 11 moon mission. The whole world watched as HORNET led a picture-perfect recovery of America's first astronauts to land on the Moon. Four months later, Hornet recovered the all-Navy crew of Apollo 12.
The USS Hornet Museum has the largest Apollo exhibit on the West Coast.
Space Artifacts on Display:
Apollo Space Capsule – used for suborbital space flights to test the heat shield designed for Apollo capsules; recovered by HORNET in 1966
Mobile Quarantine Facility – Apollo 14 astronauts Mitchell, Shepard, and Roosa were quarantined in this trailer to protect the Earth from potential “moon germs” while they were being transported back to the space center following their splashdown.
SH-3H Sea King – used in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13"; same type of helicopter that recovered the Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts painted in the same "66" livery as the original.
Splashdown Exhibit – includes memorabilia and photos from the Apollo 11 and 12 moon missions
Gemini Boilerplate – replica of a Gemini capsule
